Well here's a short story. Microsoft contacted two time WinCustomize administration regarding of my VistaXP skin. The first time they told them to remove the skin. They romoved it but they put the skin back online because they can't selectively enforce. In November they contacted WinCustomize and they took the skin down again.
Yestarday I got an e-mail from the people that represent Microsoft in intellectual property matters and they requested me to remove the skin from all the website where it is available.

Sorry everyone but no more updates or download links to VistaXP and please do not redistribute the skin. The question is why only my skin and not all other Vista based themes out there? I know they have the right to take my skin down and I dont ave any problem with it but I think is not fair to take only one skin when there are a lot of other skins using the same resources that I used.

EDIT:
I think they really want me to take the skin down. I got a letter on my mail today about the same thing. But dont worry I'll create a better skin than VistaXP hehe

EDIT 2:
Something that I didn't posted when I made this journal entry.
I agree that they have to defend their intellectual property and you can see that I don't have any problem with that, I removed all the skin from all the sites that I uploaded. But I don't think that is the case here. I've been working with this skin since July and after 5 month they decided to contacted me about it. If they really wanted to protect their intellectual property they should have contacted me before and they should have contacted all other authors and sites that are making and distributing the skins. They only took my skin down because of its popularity. The skin was one of the most downlowded skin ever on Wincustomize and devianART. My skin was not the only Vista based skin out there. There are a lot more and there will be a lot more.

EDIT 3:
On a happy note hehe, here's a second preview of my upcoming icont set. [link] You can find the first preview here - [link]

EDIT 4:
LOL another edit Tom Warren from Neowin contacted Microsoft and this is what they told him.
Here's a response I received from Jed Rose, a Product Manager on the Windows team, “We are thrilled that there are devoted online communities that customize Windows themes for users. However, owners of intellectual property need to maintain and protect their rights. So we really appreciate that the theme developer elected to respect Microsoft’s rights by removing those themes which include elements that are the subject of Microsoft’s copyrights, trademarks, and trade dress.”




All these Apple and Microsoft ports are like fan art. Like all fan art you see out, Disney, Harry Potter, Spiderman etc. People even sell copyright material, trademarks or trade dress. Every violation of intellectual property is wrong but contrary to small guys like me, big companies don’t have anything to lose. That's even free promotion to their products. Small guys have everything to lose. Let’s say someone create a wallpaper or an icon set and then another guy rip it. No one will know that that work is from another guy, just the people that he shares his work.
Those Apple or Microsoft ports do more good than harm to their companies. A lot of people started using Mac port and a lot of them are now Mac user, including me.

I still say that they took my skin down because the popularity and they notice the skin. If the skin wasn’t that popular the skin would be online on WinCustomize, deviatnART and GetSkinned.

I bet all of you that Microsoft are not going to do anything to all Vista skins out there. Here's a quick list of some of the skin that I found only on deviantART and WinCustomize. In some minutes I found all those themes and there are a lot more all over the net.

[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

Companies don’t care about it. Yes Apple took some two Aqua themes some years ago, they were popular themes back then but have they done anything to take down all the Aqua skin that are now online??? NO. Apple took down Yz Dock because it was popular. What happen with Objecdesktop, Mobydock??? They were available at the same time Yz Dock was. They didn’t take those down. Now we have a lot of themes and docks that are more similar to the OSX interface that those that Apple took down some years ago and are they doing somthing to protect their IP, NO. Big companies don’t care.